South-East governors are failing their people and shifting blame to the centre. They are averse to economic integration, can’t attract investors and watch while infrastructures within their domain decay.
The South-East has the highest number of abandoned projects, with state projects featuring prominently, a 2019 survey by the Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria said.
There are 15,000 abandoned projects in the South-East; 11,000 in the South-South; 10,000 in the South-West; 6,000 in the North-West; 7,000 in the North-Central; 5,000 in North-East, and 2,000 in Abuja, the report said.
For over 12 years now, the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway has been in a state of disrepair, wasting the lives of commuters in accidents and gunshots from dare-devil armed robbers. Yet, past and present governors of Enugu and Anambra States have failed to galvanise finances to build that road, justifying their inaction with a lame excuse that it is a federal road.
Their empty excuse contradicts interventions in other parts of the country. On September 8, Dapo Abiodun, Ogun State governor, disclosed that he was working with Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor, to build and commercialise three federal roads: Ikorodu-Ogijo-Sagamu, Epe-Ijebu-Ode and Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta roads.
“I met with my counterpart, Sanwo-Olu, and we decided that as a matter of urgency, we need to take over some roads which include Epe-Ijebu road, Ikorodu-Sagamu road and Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta road so as to reduce the population of the people passing the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway,” Abiodun said.
“Sanwo-Olu and I met with the president to hand over those three roads… A few weeks ago, the president handed over the roads to us,” he further said.
Several Nigerians from the South-East region have died on Enugu-Onitsha Expressway. On June 11, 2018, a family of seven died on Enugu-Onitsha Expressway in one out of hundreds of fatal accidents that occur on that road.
The road is currently under construction by the Federal Government, but such construction has been on since 2007 during the time of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Several federal roads in the region are dilapidated, but state roads are also not better. From Anambra to Imo, down to Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi, roads are death traps, BusinessDay checks show.
In Imo State, Naze-Nekede-Iheagwa Road is an eyesore. Students pay N150 instead of N100 to go to school from Owerri town, with commercial motorcyclists having a field day. The state has become one big dumping site – with wastes dumped along the streets, thereby courting disease outbreak.
South-East states are not among the poorest in the country. Abia State got N33.52 billion in federal allocation and internally generated revenue in the first and second quarters of 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Anambra has N32.23 billion while Ebonyi got N26.5 billion. Enugu State’s share was N35.7 billion and Imo got N37.4 billion.
The cost of rehabilitation of Enugu-Onitsha road is N7.35 billion, according to the Federal Ministry of Works’ record. Mbaise-Umuahia Road costs only N102.5 million.
“Nobody is feeling the impact of those governors,” Sam Oyigbo, lawyer and pastor, said. “Their roads are terrible. Streetlights in Anambra and many of the states are not working. No water, no security, and taxes are increasing, but you will not see what they do with the revenue they get,” he said.
Analysts say the region’s governors have failed to attract investors owing to policy inconsistency and petty politics. In real sector investments, the region has attracted only 3-5 percent of investments in the last seven years, according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria data.
There is a case in hand. Few years ago, a Chinese machine maker Zhengzhou QI’E Grain and Oil Machinery Co Limited planned to invest over $10 million in small-scale palm oil mills in five states in Nigeria, including Imo and Anambra.
Zhengzhou was to provide funds and machines to the small-scale palm oil millers to enable them supply it with palm oil.
Letters were sent to governors of the states to provide land for smallholder farmers for expansion, according to Igwe Hilary-Uche, president of Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN).
However, this move was stalled by a former governor of Imo State due to selfish demands, a palm oil miller said.
Unemployment in Imo is 28.19 percent, and 31.6 percent in Abia in the third quarter of 2018, according to the NBS.
Once upon a time, Adapalm was managed by Imo State government. It was handed over to Roche Group through a public private partnership by Rochas Okorocha, former Imo State governor.
Adapalm used to supply fresh fruit bunches to millers. Small-scale millers would pay through agents and the company would supply the bunches to them. But when Adapalm was handed over to Roche Group, the new company claimed it was not aware that many small millers had paid money for the raw materials.
The company was later handed over to Imo VTU, but this company said it was not aware of the transactions.
“I have over N2.5 million trapped there,” Remi Emeh, CEO of Remi Emeh Enterprises, who operates at Umuagwo in Imo State, said.
When BusinessDay left Emeh’s mill, a man walked close, clutching some papers. His name is Chukwu Egbuaba and he was one of the agents. Egbuaba had some invoices valued at over N25 million, given to him by many smallholder farmers and small-scale millers.
“This says a lot about how bad politics here can be,” Egbuaba, who owns CD Palm Oil Mills, said.
Even when the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, operated by the Federal Government, is in a state of inertia, the governors in the region seem preoccupied with airports.
Anambra State is pushing for a cargo airport and has even earmarked N6 billion for the construction of an international cargo airport at Umueri, Governor Obiano said at the presentation of the state’s 2020 budget on September 26, 2019.
Ebonyi State is among the three states that get the lowest allocations from the Federal Government. But the state has already secured an approval from the Federal Government to build an international airport in the state.
Ebonyi is the only state in the South- East region which falls under the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)’s top poorest countries, with a 73.6 percent poverty rate.
In Anambra, small businesses are facing a huge test. Shops of several micro and small business owners who violated building codes were destroyed as soon as Governor Willie Obiano assumed office for a second term. Commercial motorcycles were banned in Onitsha, Awka and several urban centres. Tricycles were also restricted to certain parts of the state.
“So, you demolish people’s shops and you make no provisions for them,” said Adaku Nneoma, a university teacher in one of the South-East universities.
“You are worsening the state of your insecurity,” she said.
Insecurity in the South-East is rising by the day, with many in Diaspora refusing to return home during Christmas.
Abia State deserves a special mention. It is an industrial hub of the South-East, but anyone coming into Aba through Owerri is first welcomed by putrid smell and decayed roads.
“We are already struggling to meet demands,” said Ken Anyanwu, secretary of the Association of Leather and Allied Industrialists of Nigeria (ALAN), who produced Nigerian armed forces shoes in 2016.
Ike Ibeabuchi, CEO of MD Services Limited, said Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has taken some shoemakers to China and helped give them market and exposure.
“But what he has not done is to galvanise the right infrastructure and funds for them,” he said.
“What they do now is to demolish people’s property without compensation. The governors do it because they have immunity and the people can’t seek redress. So, they make lives more difficult for the people they promised to lift,” Oyigbo said.
ODINAKA ANUDU
